The Hybrid Conflict Era by Kai London
Disruption rarely announces what it is. A cable fault, a supplier outage, a co-ordinated rumour and a ransomware incident can look alike from inside an organisation. The Hybrid Conflict Era offers boards and security leaders a disciplined way to interpret events where cyber, information, economic and physical pressure overlap — and to act sensibly without pretending to certainty.
What the book covers
A working taxonomy
Distinguishing criminal, opportunistic, commercial and state-associated activity — and being honest about when the distinction cannot be made.
Ambiguity by design
Why deniability is a feature of sub-threshold activity, and how that shapes evidence, insurance and disclosure.
Cross-domain effects
How an incident in one domain propagates into others: operations, finance, reputation, regulation.
Watch and warning
Practical indicator sets, escalation thresholds and the discipline of stating analytic confidence.
Exercising the ambiguous case
Tabletop designs where attribution never arrives and decisions must be made anyway.
Governance and reporting
Board reporting that conveys uncertainty accurately and links to pre-agreed decisions.
Analytical throughout: the book describes categories of activity and methods of assessment. It does not attribute incidents to named states or actors, take a political side, or forecast conflict.
Who it is for
Board members, CISOs, chief risk officers, crisis and continuity leads, and operators of essential and important entities under NIS2 and equivalent regimes.
About the author
Professor Kai London — CISSP, CISM.
An internationally recognised cybersecurity executive, board advisor and Founder & CEO of Quantum AI Systems Security LLC, writing at the convergence of AI, governance and operational resilience. Honorary Professor and Researcher at UCL.